April 2010 Meeting President's Remarks

Justice

An offended sense of justice is one of the reasons that many Americans voted against the Repugligan party in 2008. We had witnessed many illegal acts by officials in the Repugligan administration, and hoped that the perpetrators would be brought to justice. There is an old saying that the wheels of justice turn slowly, but many of us have gotten very tired of waiting.

A brief article in a recent Los Angeles Times brings a glimmer of hope. It's so brief that I can easily quote it here:

Court upholds Ashcroft ruling

The U.S.9th Circuit Courf of Appeals voted Thursday to let stand its September decision that former U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft is not immune from a civil action charging that he violated a Kansas-born Muslim convert's constititutional rights by having him arrested without probable cause.

Abdullah Kidd, a former University of Idaho running back whose birth name was Lavoni T. Kidd, alleges in his suit that Ashcroft's policy of using material witness warrants to detain those suspected of terrorist ties subjected him to unreasonable search and seizure and denied him due process of law.

Kidd lost his security clearance and his government contractor job after his March, 2003 arrest and 16-day detention. --Carol J. Williams

That behavior by Ashcroft's "Justice" Department is just one example of the licentiousness and lawlessness that prevailed in the Bush administration. They also illegally fired prosecutors who would not prosecute Democrats on trumped up charges. They hired unqualified prosecutors who had the desired political biases.

Notice that it has taken a civil action by a harmed plaintif to bring the illegal action to justice. Let's hope this civil success will help to prompt action of the criminal justice type. There are lots of crimes out there just waiting for the wheels of justice to start turning. Murder by illegal war is just the most egregious example.

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Last updated March 22, 2010, by Rick Wagner.